Comic Book Review: ‘Green Lantern Corps’ #13

With the Alpha Lantern’s defeated at the finale of ‘Green Lantern Corps’ #12, this issue opens on yet another scene of the “Third Army” spreading across the universe and taking even more beings under their thrall. After the Third Army scene, there’s a couple of pages showing someone (my guess is the Guardians) freeing Xar, the villain that Guy defeated in ‘Green Lantern Corps’ #0, from the subcells on Oa. It looks like Guy is about to be in for a rough time.

But before Guy gets tossed into the storm of crazy that’s sure to come, he’s first going to get built up. He was already promoted to the GL Corps’ Honor Guard. Now the Guardians are promoting him again. This time Guy is made the Corps’ sole “Lantern Sentinel”. This means that the Guardians will be taking Guy’s advice on decisions in the future. Of course, given Guy’s past relations with the Guardians and their recent plots with the Third Army, it’s pretty darn clear that this promotion is a part of some larger plot by the little blue monsters.

After being promoted to Sentinel, Guy is trusted to build a small team of Lanterns to escort some alien dignitaries to Oa to take part in some peace negotiations with another group of aliens. In the middle of their escort operation, Guy gets word that Xar has escaped the subcells. Fearing that Xar may head to Earth to hurt his friends and family, Guy takes half of his escort group and rushes towards home despite warnings from the Guardians that they fear an attack on the dignitaries.

Meanwhile, John Stewart is getting some surprising news of his own. John learns that Mogo, the living planet that he destroyed at the climax to ‘Blackest Night’, is still floating in pieces around the universe and that these pieces have suddenly begun moving of their own volition.

Peter Tomasi might not have been my favorite writer on ‘Detective Comics’, but he’s definitely doing a bang up job here on this title. The rise of the Third Army is shaping up to be one of the most intense stories I’ve read in a Green Lantern title in a while. I haven’t put my finger on it yet but something about this event is making me care more for these characters than I did during the the literal train of events that led up to the rebirth of the DCU with New 52.

If there’s any setback to this story at all, it is that it looks like the writers are setting Guy Garnder, my favorite Lantern of all time, for a major downfall. But Guy’s a tough nut to crack and DC has put him through a lot of crap in the past (Anyone remember Guy becoming the Warrior?) so I have no doubt he’ll come out on top. I just hope DC doesn’t hurt him too much before he does.